Checklist
by Sabrina Empress of Insanity
Summary: Eiji is excited about spending time with Oishi until Fuji points out that it sounds suspiciously like a date. Now he's stuck obsessing over whether it is or isn't, and whether he does or doesn't...


_Author's Note: This was written as a gift to my beta reader ages ago, but I told myself I wasn't allowed to post it until I had sent off the next chapter of A Better Whole to her first. I asked for prompts to help me get back on track with writing and she suggested one that led to this. The second part will go up once I post the next chapter of A Better Whole, which is in beta right now, so in the meantime, enjoy!_

**Chapter One**

It was a good day. Sure, it was raining a little bit and Eiji hadn't noticed until he had dashed out the door without a jacket already running so late that he couldn't take the time to grab one, but these things happened. It wasn't that big of a deal.

And sure, he'd been sneezing on and off ever since then, but that was to be expected. And maybe it had been a little unfair of his homeroom teacher to make him stand in the hall when he was only five minutes late...and he'd forgotten to study for the Japanese test that afternoon and was going to have to take it over again...and okay, he'd gotten snapped at for spacing out during tennis practice by not only by Tezuka but Ryuuzaki-sensei as well. None of it mattered as far as Eiji was concerned. It was still a very good day.

He got to spend the whole rest of the day with Oishi, just the two of them, and that was a rarity enough during tennis season that nothing at all was allowed to spoil Eiji's mood.

The rest of the regulars didn't seem to share his mood as they packed up their gear and got ready to leave for the evening. Even Momo seemed a little tired, Eiji noticed, like the constant chill of the weather was starting to get to him. He was still energetic but just a little less than normal. Even Fuji seemed a bit annoyed with his friend's constant chattering, and there was a slight sharpness to his words when he finally asked, "You're certainly in a good mood today."

Eiji let the annoyance roll off of him with a shrug and just grinned back. "Of course! Why wouldn't I be?"

Fuji raised his eyebrows, all the annoyance replaced with that flawless calm that masked suddenly curiosity. "Well, for starters, your clothes are still wet from this morning-"

"Only a little," Eiji interrupted philosophically. Fuji continued on smoothly as if he hadn't even heard him.

"-Your test went miserably today, don't interrupt, everyone in class could tell just by looking at you, Arakaki-sensei is starting to think you're a problem student with how late you've been the last week, and you had to do double laps today. That doesn't seem like a very good day so far."

With a small shrug, Eiji finished buttoning up his still-damp shirt and reached for his racket bag. "Nya, Fuji, it wasn't that bad!"

"Eiji." His friend leveled a blank look at him. "You hate running laps."

...well, there wasn't anything he could really say to that. Eiji settled for just sticking his tongue out at the team genius and dropped down onto one of the benches with a pout. "You just don't have any perspective, that's all."

"Mmmm." A small smile ghosted over Fuji's lips. "What did Oishi do?"

"Huh? He didn't do anything."

"Ahh." Fuji thought for a moment. "Plans for later, then?"

With a small bounce, Eiji sprang up off the bench again. "Yep! We're meeting up after we drop our stuff off at home. Just us, too. I never get to hang out with just Oishi anymore."

"You never hang out with just me," Fuji pointed out.

"Yeah, but you don't care, you know? This is _Oishi,_ Fuji, not you."

"Point taken."

With a triumphant grin, Eiji reached for the last of his things. "Anyway, I need to hurry up. I want to get changed into something dry before he picks me up."

"May I ask what you two are doing?"

"Nothing special. Just grabbing dinner and then heading to a movie. We'll probably hang out for a while after, too. It's going to be..." Eiji stopped and trailed off at the look on the other boy's face. "What?"

"Dinner and a movie," Fuji repeated calmly. "And he's picking you up?"

"Yeah, he says I'm closer to stuff. What are you thinking?"

Fuji just smiled and picked up his own bags. "Nothing. I suppose you know better than I do where Oishi is concerned."

"Fuuujiiii!" The redhead lunged forward and grabbed his teammate's arm. "Tell me!"

The other boy just smiled, gently removed Eiji's hand from his sleeve, and started out the door. Eiji frowned and crossed his arms in annoyance. "I'm telling your brother that I like him more than you now."

"I'm sure Yuuta will be glad to hear it."

"And that he's a better tennis player than you."

Fuji weighed the pros and cons in his head for a moment and decided that the gloating he'd be subjected to just wasn't worth it. "I just think it's interesting, that's all. Oishi picking you up to take you out for a movie and dinner...it sounds like a date, doesn't it?"

With a small squeak, Eiji stopped where he was and stared at Fuji in disbelief. All of the color drained from his face.. "He..." He swallowed once, hard, but his voice still came out barely above a whisper. "...what?"

Fuji glanced back at him in surprise and mentally made a note to work on reading his friend better in the future. Apparently, the way Eiji threw himself on the vice-captain was more than just his usual exuberant affections. Before he could speak, Eiji continued on a bit too quickly. "N-nya, you're just joking. Right, Fuji?"

He laughed but his eyes were still panicked. "Oishi wouldn't do that. He's...we're doubles partners," he corrected hastily. "There's no way that could be it."

With a shrug, Fuji opened the door and stepped outside, but his gaze never left Eiji. "You may be right. You know him better than I do, after all."

"Yeah. Right." Eiji nodded vigorously and then fell silent for a long moment. "...Fuji? You don't really think it might be a...a date, do you?"

Fuji slanted a look over his shoulder at his friend. "Maybe. Maybe not. Do you?"

The redhead shrugged nonchalantly but his voice was urgent. "I don't...I mean, how would I even know? You know." He rubbed a hand over his mouth without realizing he was doing so. "If it is a date, I mean."

"Why," Fuji asked promptly, "do you want it to be?"

_"Fuji!"_

"I couldn't really tell you, Eiji. I've never had to deduce whether I was on one or not."

The sound the escaped Eiji's throat was too pathetic to ignore and with an internal sigh Fuji backpedaled smoothly. "There are, I think, several clues that are usually a good sign, though."

His friend's eyes lit up immediately. _"Really? _I mean," he continued with a none-too-causal look down at his fingernails, "like what?"

He probably shouldn't tease about something that was obviously so serious to the other boy, but the opportunity was just too good to miss. "Well," Fuji replied thoughtfully, "there's the usual little things of course, like paying for your ticket and dinner." When Eiji nodded, obviously taking everything down in his head so he wouldn't forget, Fuji had to smile. He kept it small, though, so it wouldn't be obvious how much fun he was having with this. "If he dresses up that might mean it's a date as well...if he wears things like pants that aren't jeans, or button down shirts, or washes his hair beforehand, you know."

_Since he seems to do that on a regular basis anyway, even when it's obviously _not_ for anything romantic in nature..._

"Is that it?" Eiji asked when the silence went on for a moment too long. "That seems easy enough to remem-"

"And then," Fuji continued on with a calm smile, "there's the matter of shoes, of course. Not to mention music choice, what kind of movie you both go to see, the type of restaurant he picks, if you order appetizers or not, what sort of snacks you get at the movie theater..."

Eiji's face fell, but he listened closely anyway. Good. Fuji figured that he had to hit on at least _one_ thing that the vice-captain would do during the evening if he kept going long enough. The more that actually did happen, the better the chances were of Eiji actually coming clean about how he felt.

Besides, Fuji couldn't wait to hear about how Oishi would react the minute he realized that Eiji thought they were on a date. It seemed a suitable revenge for making the rest of them put up with Eiji's incessant cheeriness the rest of the day.


End file.
